Their appearance was prepossessing, they were grave and unassuming at first in their manners; very intelligent and ready in the Scriptures, and of great boldness in their faith. They informed us that they had heard of us in the East, and greatly rejoiced in the work of God among us—that as far as we had gone we were right, but we had not gone far enough into the work—that they had been sent by their brethren to teach the way of God more perfectly, by obedience to which all should be led into perfect holiness. They seemed to understand all the springs and avenues of the human heart. They delivered their testimony and labored to confirm it by the Scriptures. They promised the greatest blessings to the obedient, but certain damnation to the disobedient. They urged the people to confess their sins to them, especially the sin of matrimony, and to forsake all immediately—husbands must forsake their wives and wives their husbands.... Many said they were the great power of God, confessed their sins to them and forsook their marriage state. Among them were three of our preachers—Matthew Houston, Richard McNamar and John Dunlavy. Several more of our preachers and pupils, alarmed, fled from us, and joined the sects around us. (Biography, page 62)
It was only by the great effort of Stone that the churches were saved from this vortex of ruin. He labored day and night, far and near, among the churches where the Quakers went. By this means the evil influence was checked and their broken ranks were rallied, and soon led once more to victory.
THE WORK PROSPERS
Soon after the trouble with the Quakers had been quelled and the churches were once more in a prosperous condition, another trouble arose which threatened their entire overthrow. Two of the preachers, who with Stone had thrown off the yoke of Presbyterianism, abandoned the movement, reaffirmed their faith in the Westminster Confession of Faith, and returned to the Presbyterian fold. “Of the five of us,” as he wrote at a later date, “that left the Presbyterians, I only was left, and they sought my life.” Conscious of the integrity of his purpose, and convinced of the scripturalness of his position, Stone continued to preach to the churches far and near, to any who would listen to him, rendering his services gratuitously, and earning as best he could the support of his family out of his little farm. Preaching the Gospel as he now understood it, multitudes flocked to his standard, and many flourishing churches were established by him in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
As an evangelist among the pioneer population of newly-settled States he was without a rival. His large, generous nature quickly won the confidence of the hardy inhabitants. His zeal and originality awakened their interest and fixed their attention. His warm sympathies and strong emotions melted them to repentance and led them to obedience. Seldom did he preach a sermon that did not result in conversions, sometimes scores coming forward at the close of a single address. At other times the wayside cabin with its lonely occupant received with gladness the message of life. Here is a scene as he describes it:
One day as I was riding along slowly to an appointment at night, I was passing by a small hut, when a woman ran out and called to me. I stopped my horse. She told that she had heard me preach the day before, and with a heavenly countenance thanked God for it. “For,” said she, “the Lord has blessed my soul. Will you stop and baptize me?” “Yes,” said I, “gladly will I do it.” I dismounted, and walked into the hut. “Oh,” said she, “will you wait till I send for my sister, a short distance off. She was with me, and the Lord has blessed her, too. She wants also to be baptized.” “Oh, yes,” said I; “I will gladly wait.” She quickly dispatched a little boy to call her husband from the field near the house, and to tell the sister to come. In the meantime she was busy preparing dinner for me. It was no doubt the best she had, but such as I had never seen before. I never more thankfully, more happily, and more heartily dined. The husband soon came in, and the wife beckoned him out, and informed him of her intention of being baptized. He obstinately opposed it. In tears and distress she informed me. I talked mildly with him of the impropriety of his conduct, and at length gained his consent. Her countenance brightened with joy, and her sister came in shortly.
There, in the depths of the forest, in a stream that flowed near by, was witnessed a scene that rivals in picturesqueness and simple beauty any recorded in the Word of God.
On another occasion as he was returning from an appointment he was overtaken by a gentleman returning from the same meeting, and the two continued the journey together. Stone introduced the subject of religion, which was found not to be disagreeable to the stranger, though he made no profession of religion. He urged him with many arguments to a speedy turning to the Lord. It was very evident that his mind was deeply troubled and that he was vacillating as to his choice of life or death. At length they came to a clear running stream, when he said to Stone: “See, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?” To which he replied in the language of Philip to the Eunuch: “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.” The ready response came: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and am determined hereafter to be his servant.” Without anything further passing between them, they dismounted and Stone baptized him.
About 1812 Stone filled an appointment of long standing in Meigs County, Ohio. The Separate Baptists, by previous appointment, held their annual association at the same time and place. They agreed to worship together. The crowd of people was great, and early in the meeting Stone baptized William Caldwell, a Presbyterian preacher, in the Ohio River. This drew the cords of friendship more closely between him and the Baptists. By this united effort the excitement became very great. The elders and members of the association met daily in a house near the stand, where they transacted their business, while worship was carried on at the stand. Stone was asked and urged to assist them in their deliberations in the association, and frequently requested to give his opinion on certain points, which he did to their acceptance and approbation. They had a very difficult case before them, on which they could come to no decision. He was urged to speak on it, and to speak freely. He spoke freely and fully on the point, showing it to be a party measure, and unscriptural, at the same time exerting himself against sectarianism, formularies and creeds, laboring all the while to establish the scriptural ground of union among Christians, and the name they should wear, and that until Christians were united in spirit on the Bible there would be no end to such difficult cases as now confronted them. Having closed his speech, he went at once to the stand.
The mind of the association was withdrawn from any further consideration of the knotty cases before them to the consideration of what had been presented to them in the speech which they had just heard, with the result that they agreed to forever lay aside their formularies and creeds and take the Bible alone for their rule of faith and practice—to drop the name “Baptist” and take the name “Christian”—and to disband their association and join Stone and others in their efforts to return to apostolic Christianity. They then marched to the stand, shouting the praises of God and proclaiming aloud what they had done. They embraced each other with Christian love, by which the union was cemented. This gave a mighty impetus to the work and multitudes were added to the Lord.